The present apparatus is a scissors lift vehicle equipped with pipe handling apparatus.
It is often desirable to install pipes at an elevated location above the ground, such as sprinkler pipes just beneath the roof of a building, or at a substantial height above the floor of the building. These operations require that the pipe be lifted and placed in position and, also, that plural pipes be joined together, and this must be done by workmen who are able to have access to the ends of the pipe, or to the pipe joint structure, to effect assembly thereof.
There have been proposed the addition to aerial platform apparatus of pipe grabs or pipe handling apparatus. Aerial platform apparatus may be described as a self-propelled vehicle having a chassis with a rotatable upper works, and an extensible boom pivoted on the upper works. A workman's platform or basket is carried adjacent the outer end of the boom, and there have been proposed the addition of pipe grabs or pipe handling implements to such aerial platform apparatus. These machines were capable of grabbing a pipe at or adjacent the ground, while a workman was in the workmans's platform or basket, and then elevating the platform, together with the pipe, and finally the pipe could be elevated to a position above the platform. As will be readily understood, such apparatus could only handle a single pipe at a time. Examples of the foregoing constructions are GROVE U.S. Pat. No. 3,809,180 and GROVE U.S. Pat. No. 3,937,340.
Apparatus in which there is a self-propelled vehicle with an extensible boom and a workman's platform, and a storage apparatus for tubular articles is also known. See MITCHELL U.S. Pat. No. 2,787,278.
A number of proposals have been made for loading tubular objects, such as logs, pipes and telephone poles onto the bed of a flat-bed truck, these apparatus utilizing pivoted levers which are capable of engaging the tubular articles with their outer ends, and, upon rotation of the levers, swinging the articles upwardly from a position at or near the ground, so as to deposit them onto the bed of a truck. Examples of such constructions are ARVIDSSON, U.S. Pat. No. 2,704,160, WOLF, U.S. Pat. No. 2,789,707, WARREN, U.S. Pat. No. 3,021,021 and BARLOW, U.S. Pat. No. 3,667,621. In these devices, the tubular article loaded onto the truck is removed therefrom by effecting a rotation of the arms from a substantially vertical position in which their free ends are uppermost, to a position in which their free ends are at or adjacent ground level, but there is no elevation of the tubular articles from their position on the truck to a higher position.
Arms have also been applied to a vehicle to load other apparatus onto the vehicle, such as a reel of cable. See YOUNG, U.S. Pat. No. 3,165,214.
In addition, the prior art has been aware of scaffolds having material handling apparatus attached to them, for elevating objects, examples being HARLAN et al, U.S. Pat. No. 2,762,659 and ABRELL, U.S. Pat. No. 3,018,842.